Evidence on the Adequacy of First Nations Consultation - BC Hydro ...

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
Schaeffer was told by those he interviewed that “prior to the opening of the 19 th century,” the
“Columbia Lakes” area 205 was one of the four Upper Kutenai “populational loci.” The other three
“populational loci” were identified by Schaeffer as: the Crows Nest Pass or Michel Prairie area;
the Tobacco Plains area on both sides of what is now the Canada/United States boundary; and,
the area around Libby, Montana. Schaeffer went on to say that:
Each one of these localities was strategically located for the exploitation
of an important food resource: salmon on the uppermost Columbia, bison
in the Crows Nest Pass region, camas, bitterroot and berries at Tobacco
Plains, and deer in the Libby-Jennings section. 206
The “Columbia Lakes Band,” Schaeffer wrote, was actually comprised of two separate groups of
Kutenai who had their main campsites in this locality at different periods:
a) Kátamukinik, the earlier people, named from their camp site (kátamu) located
on the Columbia River immediately south of the mouth of Toby Creek. They
were a small group of Upper Kutenai, whose economic activities were carried
out along the north-south axis of the Kootenai-Columbia valley, with eastwest
excursions across the Rockies to the bison range. They subsisted more
upon fish than game. They are said to have spoken Tunáxa. 207
b) Akískənəkinik, “people of the two lakes,” the successor group, which had its
main camp near Fairmont Springs [Fairmont Hot Springs] between Columbia
and Windermere Lakes. 208
Concerning the earlier group, the “kátamukinik”, sometimes called the “Toby Creek Kutenai,” 209
Schaeffer reported they spent November and December at Tobacco Plains or Libby, Montana.
After New Year, some of them travelled to the Toby Creek area (“kátamu”, from which this
group took their name) where they spent January through March hunting bighorn sheep and
waterfowl. The “kátamukinik” spent the months of August through September in the Columbia
205 In earlier times, what is known today as “Lake Windermere” was referred to as “Lower Columbia
Lake,” and what is today “Columbia Lake” was known as “Upper Columbia Lake.”
206 Schaeffer 1934-1969, Reel 1.
207 The Robertson study states that this band is now comprised “of the Shuswap descendants of the
Kinbasket clan, who have intermarried with the Ktunaxa, Colville, and Stoney people, as well as Ktunaxa
descendants of the Columbia Lake Band near Windermere, BC.” It is said to consist of the former Toby Creek and
Whiteswan Lake bands ((Robertson 2007:1).
“kátamukinik”.
208 Schaeffer 1934-1969, Reel 1.
209 Schaeffer (1934-1969, Reel 2) also transcribed the name for these people as “katamukínik” rather than
Bouchard & Kennedy Research Consultants Page 49
Page 52 of 200